Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Get Those Bugs Out of Our House!
The Background Story
Today's post comes from my gardening, specifically my lawn and grass. I'm in charge of the lawn, and my wife takes care of the trees, shrubs, flowers,and herbs.
I live in Canada, specifically in Montreal,in the Province of Quebec. About 10 years ago, both the federal and provincial governments decided to ban pesticides and herbicides that were in common use then. Their decision was based on trying to avoid harmful poisons getting into the environment, as well as protecting children from coming into contact with these poisons.
By banning pesticides that had been used from anywhere form 20- Aa a result, flowers are eaten by all kinds of insects, as well as being attacked by fungi and moulds. As for grass, my lawn is infested by at least 10 weed species, and grubs. I did out the weeds by hand, which is not that hard. If you spend about 2 hours a week, weeding, you can have a beautiful lawn without using herbicides. However, not everyone has the time, and if you have a large lawn -that's not possible. As for the grubs, they're another story.
Grubs are the larval stage of assorted insects such as beetles. The beetles lay their eggs in the earth below the grass level. The eggs mature to small grubs, which then eat the roots of your grass, and the grass dies. So you end up with large patches of dead and yellow grass, that comes out with an easy pull from your hand.
I went on the Internet last year, and discovered the world of nematodes. . These are microscopic types of wormlike creatures. You buy them live, add them to water, and spray them on your lawn. You then apply plenty of water, so they can burrow into the ground. Once in the ground, they search out the grubs, and then eat and kill them. By biting and eating the grubs, even smaller bacterial organisms start to feast on the grubs, and the grubs die.
The Damage Caused by Grubs
The Adults Beetles and Their Larvae in the Grub Stage
A Microscopic View of Beneficial Nematodes
Insect Toys
The 5 photos above are all of the same Lehmann beetle # 431.
I just wanted to show you the different camera angles, and the open wings after it is wound up
for movement (Clockwork mechanism).
Some of the toys presented today are mechanical wind-ups like the Lehmann Beetle. The # 431 moves as well as opening and closings its wings. The remaining 2 images (above) simply are push toys that a child would push along the ground.
Because I like to keep each post to just 1 auctioneers,
I decided to present 2 posts today on the same subject.
If you like insects, wait until you see the next post!
Thanks for dropping by,
and have a great part of the day,
wherever you may be,
Stacey
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